Source file inclusion

 

C++

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Technical Specifications

 

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Preprocessor

#if#ifdef#ifndef#else#elif#endif

#define#undef#,## operators

#include__has_include(C++17)

#error

#pragma_Pragma(C++11)

#line

 

Includes other source file into current source file at the line immediately after the directive.

Syntax

#include <filename>	(1)
#include "filename"	(2)
__has_include ( " filename " ) __has_include ( < filename > )	(3)	(since C++17)

Any preprocessing tokens (macro constants or expressions) are permitted as arguments to #include and __has_include (since C++17) as long as they expand to a sequence of characters surrounded by < > or " ".

Explanation

1,2) Includes source file, identified by filename into the current source file at the line immediately after the directive. In the case the file is not found, program is ill-formed.

1) Searches for the file in implementation-defined manner. The intent of this syntax is to search for the files under control of the implementation. Typical implementations search only standard include directories. The standard C++ library and the standard C library are implicitly included in these standard include directories. The standard include directories usually can be controlled by the user through compiler options.

2) Searches for the file in implementation-defined manner. The intent of this syntax is to search for the files that are not controlled by the implementation. Typical implementations first search the directory where the current file resides and, only if the file is not found, search the standard include directories as with (1).

3) Preprocessor constant expression that evaluates to 1 if the file name is found and ​0​ if not. The program is ill-formed if the argument would not be a valid argument to the #include directive.

Notes

When a file is included, it is processed by translation phases 1-4, which may include, recursively, expansion of the nested #include directives. To avoid repeated inclusion of the same file and endless recursion when a file includes itself, perhaps transitively, header guards are commonly used: the entire header is wrapped in

#ifndef FOO_H_INCLUDED /* any name uniquely mapped to file name */
#define FOO_H_INCLUDED
// contents of the file are here
#endif

Many compilers also implement the non-standard pragma #pragma once with similar effects: it disables processing of a file if the same file (where file identity is determined in OS-specific way) has already been included.

A __has_include result of 1 only means that a header or source file with the specified name exists. It does not mean that the header or source file, when included, would not cause an error or would contain anything useful. For example, on a C++ implementation that supports both C++14 and C++17 modes (and provides __has_include in its C++14 mode as a conforming extension), __has_include(<optional>) may be 1 in C++14 mode, but actually #include <optional> may cause an error.

Example

Run this code

#if __has_include(<optional>)
#  include <optional>
#  define have_optional 1
#elif __has_include(<experimental/optional>)
#  include <experimental/optional>
#  define have_optional 1
#  define experimental_optional 1
#else
#  define have_optional 0
#endif
 
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    if (have_optional)
        std::cout << "<optional> is present.\n";
 
    int x = 42;
#if have_optional == 1
    std::optional<int> i = x;
#else
    int* i = &x;
#endif
    std::cout << "i = " << *i << '\n';
}

Possible output:

<optional> is present.
i = 42

See also

cpp/header

a list of C++ Standard Library header files